In this 1996 interview with Luc Sala in Palenque Norte, Mexico, Sasha describes the motivation behind his life's work of creating tools for the mind.

MDMA-assisted psychotherapy is one of today's most promising areas of PTSD research. Learn more about MAPS' MDMA initiative and find links to MAPS-supported research of ibogaine, ayahuasca, LSD, and medical marijuana.

​Kathleen Conneally successfully quit smoking after a decades-long habit with the help of psilocybin. Conneally was a participant in a study at Johns Hopkins University looking at whether nicotine addiction could be treated by psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms. In this short video, staff writer Olga Khazan speaks with Conneally about her experience and uncovers the science of how psychedelics work in the brain to make this possible.

Has anything changed in 40 years? It's arguably worse. Listen to the Surgeon General who wants to improve emotional well-being through meditation, gratitude exercises, and social connection (psilocybin psychotherapy, anyone?) http://www.ouramazingworld.org/life/shamanicoptions

​Taking antidepressants during your 2nd and 3rd Trimester may increase your odds of having a child with autism according to new research results shown in a new JAMA Pediatrics Study.

More specifically, the antidepressant drug class, (SSRI's) which stand for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors have now been shown to increase the chance of having a child with autism. The results for this massive study were released just yesterday and had 145,456 children enrolled and was performed in Quebec, Canada.

​Exposure to antidepressants was defined as the mother having had one or more prescription for antidepressants filled during the second or third trimester of the pregnancy.

Interview between the website ResearchGate and Anick Bérard, The Senior Author of this Clinical Study.

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ResearchGate: What were your results?

Anick Bérard: Using antidepressants, especially selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI), during the 2nd/3rd trimesters of pregnancy increases the risk of having a child with autism (87 percent increased risk of autism with any antidepressants; more than doubling the risk with SSRI use specifically) – this risk is above and beyond the risk associated with maternal depression alone (maternal depression was associated with a 20 percent increased risk of autism in our study). Given the mounting evidence showing increased risk of adverse pregnancy outcome with antidepressant use during pregnancy, our study shows that depression should be treated with other options (other than antidepressants) during this critical period.

Indeed, 80-85 percent of depressed pregnant women are mildly to moderately depressed; exercise and psychotherapy have been shown to be efficacious to treat depression in this sub-group. Therefore, we acknowledge that depression is a serious condition but that antidepressants are not always the best solution.

RG: We normally think of the first trimester as being the riskiest time for the fetus, but this study was actually in the second and third trimesters. Why is the risk greater later in pregnancy?

AB: 1st trimester exposure is problematic for embryogenesis; 2nd/3rd trimesters are critical for brain development. Hence, the critical time-window for our study was the later part of the pregnancy.

RG: Do you think the rise in prescription antidepressants could be a cause of the rise in autism diagnoses?

AB: In part - yes given the association we have seen in our study. The rise in autism can also be explained by the increased detection and widening of the diagnostic criteria over the past decade.

RG: What do you want people to take from your study, and what don't you want people to take from it?

AB: Take from it: Depression is a serious condition and needs to be treated. 80-85 percent of depressed pregnant women are mildly-moderately depressed. Antidepressants are only one treatment option in this population. Randomized controlled trials have also shown that exercise or psychotherapy are valid treatment options outside of pregnancy and for pregnant women as well.

Don't take from it: That, given the increased risk of many adverse pregnancy outcomes (including autism) that have been reported in the literature, we are advocating non-treatment of depression. Depression needs to be treated during pregnancy but with something other than antidepressants in the majority of cases.

Our study is not out to scare women. It’s 2015 and women can make informed decisions, but they need to have evidence-based data. A discussion with their physician is warranted in order to fully consider all treatment options.

RG: What about women who are on antidepressants when they find out they are pregnant--are many advised to wean off as a normal patient would?

AB: Unfortunately, no at present. The common belief that depression can only be treated with antidepressants is false. I would always be very cautious about saying that anything is 'safe' during pregnancy. We have to remember that thalidomide was labeled as 'safe' for use during pregnancy.

RG: Is it safe to say that women on antidepressants in their second and third trimester are the ones who have already consulted a doctor and chosen to stay on their meds?

AB: I would hope that these women were able to fully assess the risk/benefit ratio. Unfortunately, I think that this overestimates the benefits and underestimates the risk under the assumption that antidepressants are the only treatment option - which is false.

RG: Did you also consider the severity of the mother's depression or the dose of the drug used in your findings?

AB: We could not measure maternal depression severity. However, we found that mothers who took more than one class of antidepressants during the 2nd/3rd trimester were more than four times more likely to have a child with autism – this group could be seen as more severe than those using only one class during the same window. As for dosage, this is what we are doing at present (not included in our JAMA Pediatrics study). Our JAMA Pediatrics findings are for at least one dose of antidepressant (use vs. non-use) during late pregnancy. Now, we are looking at whether there is a dose-response effect (in a later study).

RG: What do you say to other recent reports that said taking antidepressants during pregnancy were safe?

AB: This study is consistent with other studies on the same research question. Each study is observational because randomized controlled trials are not ethically possible during pregnancy. Hence, each study is describing an association. The accumulation of such findings will lead to causation.

Due to a culture that lacks means of resilience, financial inability to have children, and massive school loans that last an eternity, many Americans struggle to find meaning in life.

Economic reasons force many Americans to wait until they are 40 to afford having kids choose to not have them at all.

More reasons Americans are suffering from an epidemic of addiction and death: ​Expensive health insurance driven by overpriced healthcare and prescription drugs, high cost of college that is laughed at

With proper set and setting, the mystical experience occasioned by classic hallucinogens may give patients insight into the self, create persisting increases in the personality domain of openness, and elicit feelings of interconnectedness with:

Next to nothing is known about how awe, which is typically elicited by information-rich stimuli like panoramic nature views instead of social stimuli (Shiota et al., 2007), can likewise influence prosocial tendencies so vital to trust and commitment.

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Van Cappellen and Saroglou (2012) found that eliciting awe via a nature video caused participants to feel more connected to people in general on the Inclusion of the Other in the Self Scale (Aron, Aron, & Smollan, 1992).​
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Those individuals who report feeling part of a greater entity, such as humanity, nature, or a spiritual force tend to report increased gratitude and empathy—emotions tightly linked to prosociality (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002).

Moderation is key.

Trouble with Nature:
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Does everyone in America have access to nature?
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Is there adequate transportation that allows people to leave squalid festering slumholes, or the South during the middle of the summer?

"Awe is such a powerful emotion because it signifies wonder and amazement in the world, and you don’t have to travel abroad or pursue a daring adventure to find it. “In fact, participants report feeling awe about twice a week on average, making it a more common emotion than we might expect,” she said, noting that everyday experiences— glancing up at the stars or watching athletes achieve a seemingly impossible physical feat—can inspire awe.
​The survey measured seven key emotions: amusement, awe, contentment, compassion, pride, love and joy. Stellar found that four specific emotions—joy, pride, contentment and awe—predicted lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-6.
Interestingly, awe had the strongest negative relationship to IL-6, even when researchers controlled for the other six positive emotions, personality measures and a third method of measuring emotions.

While researchers don’t entirely know why awe topped the list of emotions as a positive predictor of health, Stellar said she’s certain that her own studies have changed her way of thinking about awe in the world."Make a Difference

​Find your congressman or woman's number here and tell them we need leadership in mental health, pain, and substance abuse care, not more of the same bureaucratic bickering.

​Decriminalize or create a special legal class for these minimally addictive substances so they can be properly researched. Current Schedule I DEA classification has prevented significant advances in mental health and substance abuse treatment for over 40 years. There needs to be a single government payer for everything related to mental health and pain. ​It would result in better research of all types of therapies and limit the patient stress that comes with not knowing if certain therapies will be covered or even work in the first place. This type of single payer system already exists for the VA System. What about the rest of the country?

Click for link.

The Veterans Affairs Healthcare System is arguably the best we have in the United States, yet even it cannot provide adequate mental health care to patients. We must do better in the United States and it must start with large-scale, culturally competent, government-sponsored research of classic hallucinogens and mindfulness. Both are archaic means of resilience that will not bankrupt the nation.

Recent pain and opioid management fighting among doctors/government agencies is equivalent to our embarrassingly poor history of helping those with mental illness in our country. There is lack of leadership from the practitioner level to the top tiers of government. It's bureaucratic failure at its finest.

Psychiatry vs. psychology vs. anti-psychiatry vs. FDA vs. severe mental illness vs. non-severe mental illness. Psychiatry and psychology are left to fight over the relatively paltry funding that is allotted to our mental well-being. Those with severe mental illness are put in prison or left homeless. There is a complete lack of leadership and vision for the future of mental health, substance abuse, and pain care in America.

Click for link.

Moreover, GOP presidential candidates treat drug policy reform as if were a pot joke while thousands of families have been ruined by draconian laws that are not based on science. Cannabis is effective in treating pain, but it's been illegal for the past 50 years. Instead, the FDA condoned the use of Oxycontin in the 1990s to mistreat centralized pain.

Read Carly Fiorina's story about her daughter’s struggles with alcohol, prescription pills and bulimia that led to her death at age 35: “Lori’s potential was never fulfilled but death is not the only thing that crushes potential… What I also know is that Americans are failing to achieve their potential today.”

We will fail to reach our potential until Presidential candidates make drug policy, pain, mental health and substance abuse care topics of discussion in the 2016 election.